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What kind of team will this be on offense

I think this year will be very interesting to see what kind of team we are. The league rules are clearly written to favor the passing game and scoring. I really never see us becoming pass happy (whatever that is), but consider the following:

1. We just signed a franchise QB for $102M. I don't think we did this for him to hand off the ball.
2. We have spent premium picks in the last two to three years for players who add to a pasing attack. Holmes and Sweed at WR, Miller and Spaeth at TE and Mendenhall at RB (who has shown in college he catch the ball).

The question before the group is how much do we pass and how much do we run? Outside the box, I really think that Ben would be the perfect QB to run a more west coast style offense focusing on short to intermediate range passes. He to me is very much a Brett Favre clone and clearly has the weapons now. Are we going in this direction this year? Would we take the AFC by surprise and would this jump us up to the top with the Patriots and Indy?

The thing I really like about this approach is that it gets the ball out of the QB's hands faster thereby taking the pressure off the OL to sustain blocks.

Re: What kind of team will this be on offense

Great thoughts, O.

Balance and diversity in plays. These are the things that pop out in my mind. Its really not a question of how much we run or pass, but more rather when are we going to run or pass. For all the successes that Ben and the offense had last year, there were certain instances in certain games that just left me scratching my head and more often.... yelling at the HDTV. I understand that the slumping team performance of 2006 necessitated Arians dumbing down the playbook to help get Ben get back his comfortability in the pocket back. But IMO, this year we need to build on that foundation. We have such an arsenal of talent on offense and Arians needs to maximize the talent around Ben.

WestCoast? That would be awesome... but my confidence in our offensive coordinator is lacking and I don't think that this is even remotely possible. I think that with our personnel, we can execute whatever offensive we decide to run..... #23 against the pass? Air it out and give both Hines and Santonio a dozen catches a piece and 4-5 TDs for Ben..... Last in the league against the run? Let's go old school and ram it down their throats with a heaping dose of Willie and Mendy. I'd like to see such diversity and synergy with our offense that we'll have success from whatever the opposing defense will give us on that particular week.

The engine of this entire offense is most definitely Ben. But no matter if we have this awesome HEMI-type work horse engine.... Arians is the steering wheel, the question is.... will we be lead to the promise land or head on into a tree?

Re: What kind of team will this be on offense

Well spoken AS, we do have enough weapons and talent as to be able to unleash a offensive multi-dimensional juggernaut. We should be able to light it up and play to weaknesses of all the defenses we play against. Good post.

Re: What kind of team will this be on offense

Good thoughts O and AS. I have to agree more with what AS said. This O will be about diversity. I don't see us running a West Coast O. My hope is that our "genius" O coordinator realizes that he has the personel to break down the weaknesses of each teams D. If you are playing a soft run D...pound the ball a bit. In the AFC North...the DBs are not deep. In our division...we should run alot of 4-5 wide sets. It creates match up problems. Personally, in our division I would love to see more 4 wide Ace sets...with Mendenhall in the backfield. IMO, this creates the most amount of match up issues...it doesn't commit to the pass...they must respect the run. So do they put a nickle package on the field to stop the pass? Or do they run 4-3...3-4 and place LBs on WRs? Can they afford to blitz and leave Holmes workin a DB one on one?

The possibilities are endless and my hope is that we do everything well...and play to the Ds weakness.

Re: What kind of team will this be on offense

Balance is Key to any championship offense. I believe Noll learned that after Franco and Rocky went down in the '76 playoff game with the Colts. Rock & Franco had over a thousand yards each that season. Rock & Franco's loss which preceded the AFC championship game with Oakland cost the Steelers another Super Bowl IMO. I'm sure I am one of many who say that, but the Steelers were more balanced in '77 and '78. Bradshaw beat both Dallas and the Rams thru the air. In fact, the Rams had pretty much shut down the running game. Swann left the game with an injury, but Stallworth came thru. We had the weapons! We had the balance too!

Re: What kind of team will this be on offense

I feel that we will have the same style of "Ball Control" offense as we have loved with the great option of weapons if the opposing defense want's to crowd 8-9 in the box.
Ben was givin the green light to audible but learning a new offense(Ariens) made it hard enough to just run the play that was given to him, now with 1 season under his belt, Ben should feel more comfortable making the change at the line.IMO

Re: What kind of team will this be on offense

Originally Posted by SteelerSal1

I feel that we will have the same style of "Ball Control" offense as we have loved with the great option of weapons if the opposing defense want's to crowd 8-9 in the box.
Ben was givin the green light to audible but learning a new offense(Ariens) made it hard enough to just run the play that was given to him, now with 1 season under his belt, Ben should feel more comfortable making the change at the line.IMO

It would be a shame to see the Steelers run ball control. We have " go for the jugular" weapons. Not to mention our O line is not the best. In order to control the clock, you really need to be strong in the trenches. Ball control IMO...would be trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Run with what you got...and that is a superb selection of arial weapons.

Re: What kind of team will this be on offense

Originally Posted by ShawnMedGuy

Originally Posted by SteelerSal1

I feel that we will have the same style of "Ball Control" offense as we have loved with the great option of weapons if the opposing defense want's to crowd 8-9 in the box.
Ben was givin the green light to audible but learning a new offense(Ariens) made it hard enough to just run the play that was given to him, now with 1 season under his belt, Ben should feel more comfortable making the change at the line.IMO

It would be a shame to see the Steelers run ball control. We have " go for the jugular" weapons. Not to mention our O line is not the best. In order to control the clock, you really need to be strong in the trenches. Ball control IMO...would be trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Run with what you got...and that is a superb selection of arial weapons.

I want to destroy teams much like the Pats did. Particularly AFC North teams just to watch them and their fans cry

If we are going to beat the Pats, Jags, Indy and Dallas this season we will have to do it by scoring lots of points. We need to get ours running on hyper speed before we play those games. I think each of them have a weakness on defense dealing with that kind of offense. Let's go for it.

Re: What kind of team will this be on offense

Originally Posted by Oviedo

Originally Posted by ShawnMedGuy

Originally Posted by SteelerSal1

I feel that we will have the same style of "Ball Control" offense as we have loved with the great option of weapons if the opposing defense want's to crowd 8-9 in the box.
Ben was givin the green light to audible but learning a new offense(Ariens) made it hard enough to just run the play that was given to him, now with 1 season under his belt, Ben should feel more comfortable making the change at the line.IMO

It would be a shame to see the Steelers run ball control. We have " go for the jugular" weapons. Not to mention our O line is not the best. In order to control the clock, you really need to be strong in the trenches. Ball control IMO...would be trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Run with what you got...and that is a superb selection of arial weapons.

I want to destroy teams much like the Pats did. Particularly AFC North teams just to watch them and their fans cry

If we are going to beat the Pats, Jags, Indy and Dallas this season we will have to do it by scoring lots of points. We need to get ours running on hyper speed before we play those games. I think each of them have a weakness on defense dealing with that kind of offense. Let's go for it.

Re: What kind of team will this be on offense

Originally Posted by Oviedo

I think this year will be very interesting to see what kind of team we are. The league rules are clearly written to favor the passing game and scoring. I really never see us becoming pass happy (whatever that is), but consider the following:

1. We just signed a franchise QB for $102M. I don't think we did this for him to hand off the ball.

2. We have spent premium picks in the last two to three years for players who add to a pasing attack. Holmes and Sweed at WR, Miller and Spaeth at TE and Mendenhall at RB (who has shown in college he catch the ball).

The question before the group is how much do we pass and how much do we run? Outside the box, I really think that Ben would be the perfect QB to run a more west coast style offense focusing on short to intermediate range passes. He to me is very much a Brett Favre clone and clearly has the weapons now. Are we going in this direction this year? Would we take the AFC by surprise and would this jump us up to the top with the Patriots and Indy?

The thing I really like about this approach is that it gets the ball out of the QB's hands faster thereby taking the pressure off the OL to sustain blocks.

I also hope we didn't sign Ben to 102 million dollars to have him throw the football all over the field. I'm hoping they signed him to 102 million dollars, because, Ben will win a lot of football games, regardless, of how the job gets done.

Wins are what make me happy and if Ben wins games and only throws the ball 20 times a game that's still money well invested. I'd rather win in any fashion than show of our brand new shiny car just to show it off.

But, hey, that's me, a good investment is a good investment and winning games will be the ultimate test of the 102 million invested. I'd hate to be losing games and have Ben throwing for 5,000 yards (yippee, Ben is great, but, the Steelers suck...not for me).